Don’t Let Yourself Be Denied Workers’ Compensation Benefits because of an Old Injury

When you file a claim for workers’ compensation benefits, one of the first things your employer and the workers’ compensation insurance company will do is investigate whether your injury occurred at work. It’s one of the two requirements to qualify for benefits—you must have been injured and it must have been in the course of your employment.

One of the common ways an employer or insurance company will try to argue that your injury was not work-related, and that you are not entitled to benefits, is to allege that the injury was pre-existing. However, the fact that you suffered any type of injury in the past does not automatically disqualify you from recovering compensation for an injury to same body part (or even the exact same type of injury). You can even file a claim for a recurring injury, provided you were medically cleared to return to work.

We handled a case a few years back where the insurance company attempted to deny coverage, claiming that injuries our client had suffered at work were actually the result of motor vehicle accident years earlier. We were able to demonstrate that our client had fully healed from the earlier injury and that her work-related injury was entirely unrelated.

At Pyrros & Serres LLP, we handle all matters related to workers’ compensation and Social Security disability claims for people in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and across the greater New York City metropolitan area. Because of our reputation for effective advocacy, many of our new clients come to us as referrals from clients and other lawyers.